Should Be Skiing

It looks like a semi good day on  Mt. Spokane. It's overcast here in the city but the mountain is above it all...mostly.

Here is a progression of pictures I took off the website from Chair Number Three.

You can see the fog move in and up the mountain.

It's really foggy at the lodge.

Not much is on the agenda for today. We are going out to lunch around 1 or 2 o'clock. Susan had lunch plans with the girls but it fell through.

When I'm finished here, I'll go find some stuff to do.    

Hot Tub Cleaning

 Several weeks ago I made a major faux pas with the hot tub. I have been using bromine based chemicals to maintain the water and my supplier stopped selling it. So I bought chlorine based chemicals that replaced the old stuff.

I should have drained the tub containing the bromine chemicals because when I added the chlorine, the water turned yellow. The two systems are not compatible.

So it took me until today to fix the problem. The tub has been drained and there is scorched earth area of my front lawn where the old water went. I’m going to put some ice melt down on the sidewalk to prevent the water that made it that far from icing up.

I just checked the tub and it is almost half way full. Once the water covers the heating duct, I can turn on the pump and heater and begin the reheating process. It might even be ready tonight.

The heat is on now and it should not be much longer before the tub is full.

It’s taken me less than two hours to complete this little project. I haven’t yet decided whether to use the chlorine chemicals or find a new outlet for bromine, which I’m much more used to.

Now it’s time for some Gonzaga Basket Weaving. Today they are weaving their way through the Bronco Boys from Santa Clara.

Later: Gonzaga appears to be well on the way to winning this basket weaving game. With less than three minutes, they are up by 34 weaves.

A Little Later: It's 5:00 and I just checked the tub. It will not be ready for tonight unless one wants to get into 50° water.

Precarious Treachery

I've been going to Northtown Mall to walk for the last couple of weeks. Originally, it was just too cold for a walk. Then the sloppy nature of winter and several un shoveled sidewalks kept me at the mall.

This morning, Susan and I ventured out to circle the park. It's a bright sunny day with the temperature in the 40's.

However, the sidewalks were still pretty treacherous. We didn't even get past our property before I had a near fall on a patch of ice. 

So much rain fell that it has pooled up in low spots of the sidewalks, requiring us to walk up on peoples lawns that at least were snowy, although very crusty.

We managed to make it around but it was precarious.

We have some Christmas decorations to stow today and then we are going out to watch Gonzaga play Basketball against Pepperdine.     

After the Snow

I estimate that about se7en inches of snow fell yesterday. It started to rain about 4:00 and the rain continued well into the night. It was still raining when I got up around 1:00AM.

The streets around the neighborhood are sloppy messes right now but the main arterials and bare and wet. So I use four wheel drive in the neighborhood and switch back to two wheel when I get to the main roads.

I would say the snow plow crews have done a pretty good job. It's 43° out right now and it looks from the forecast as though our cold spell is over.

I managed to knock down that problem icicle I referenced yesterday. I'm still not convinced that there is not a problem with pooling water up there. I'm sure there is a good puddle of water up in that crevice where the roofs meets. I'm depending in the new roof to keep that water from leaking down the wall as it once did.

I'm keeping an eye on it.

My job for today is to get all the Christmas stuff put away up in the Carriage House.    

Thursday for the Retired Guy

 There is at least four inches of fresh snow on the ground and it is still snowing. I'm not heading out to snow blow until the snow quits. They don't expect the snow to stop for a while yet.

So I am hanging out here in my office area in the back bedroom and figuring out my day.

I guess I will get dressed and go out and take some pictures.

I did some preliminary clean up. Just enough to make a path to the garage and clear the front steps.

I measured the snow on the deck rail and it was five inches deep.

I just asked Alexa when the snow would end and it responded the snow would stop in about 15 minutes. It's still coming down at a good rate and I don't expect it to stop that soon. In fact, the flakes were pretty large when I was taking these pictures but they are much smaller right now.

To quote a bit of Native American wisdom, "Big Snow, Little Snow. Little Snow, Big Snow!"

To simplify, if the snow flakes falling are large, it's not going to snow very much. If they are small, look out.

Well, I'm looking out for now.

I was hoping that the new roof would eliminate this little problem we have every year. I'm going to have to knock this icicle down. But what I really need to do is remember what I did with the heat cable I took down and get it back up there.

It's been 20 minutes and the snow is still falling. However, now the flakes are really small.

3:54PM: I finally started snow blowing about 11:00 and I finished around 1:30. I think there was a good six inches on the ground. I had to take it slow and about 3/4 of a swath to blow efficiently.

My block is now safe.

Snowin' and Blowin' and Skiin'

 I awoke to four inches of snow this morning. It was light and easily snow blown away. I covered my usual territory and kept the block free of slippery sidewalks.

After blowing, I went skiing with my life long friend Robba. We skied seven runs but it was not pretty for me. My stamina continues to vex me. I make a few turns and then stop to rest and catch my breath. I don't feel confident in my abilities anymore. I am now pretty much a fair weather skier.

I remember when my Dad became a fair weather skier. I was really caught off guard because he had always been such a gung ho ski guy. Suddenly, he was skiing three runs and heading for the lodge.

Well, I continue to turn into my Dad.

We have more snow on the way tonight. They are saying it's possible that seven inches could fall. We shall see. I'm not holding my breath though.

Frosty Holiday Lights

 We did indeed go and check out some Holiday lights last night. There is a thing going on out at the fairgrounds called Northwest Holiday Lights. They have a bunch of displays like this.

It cost $17.00 for each of us to get in and it really wasn't worth it.

Part of the problem was that it was 9° out. They had a couple of heating stations which was helpful, but 9° is not a pleasant temperature to be out in. Especially at our age.

We think we might be able to salvage the experience by using some of the pictures I took for next years Christmas Card.

Happy Twenty Twenty-Two!

There are few simple pleasures better than sleeping in on New Years Day. We had an uneventful evening that we spent over at our friends, Randy and Karen.

We had a nice dinner, played some games, and toasted the New Year at midnight.

I ended up staying up until almost three, which is five hours later than I normally go to bed.

We are going over to Northtown Mall shortly to walk. It's far too cold to walk outside for any length of time.

The rest of the day shall be peaceful without a lot of activity. We might go see some Christmas light later. Then, it all comes down tomorrow.